Mars probe sends back new pictures of landing site

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The Phoenix lander has sent back
new pictures from the arctic circle of Mars, showing for the
first time the spot where it will dig through the Red Planet's
dusty surface looking for water and assess conditions for life.

The remarkable images, displayed on Tuesday by mission
managers, offered a glimpse of the Martian valley where Phoenix
will scoop up samples of frozen soil for analysis by its
instruments -- as well as views of the lander and its discarded
parachute standing out starkly from the dark surface of the
planet where they came to rest.

"This is a place we're going to get to know very well over
the next three months," the mission's chief scientist, Peter
Smith, said in describing the 30-mile wide valley and small
hills on the horizon.

Mission managers said Phoenix, which touched gently down on
Mars on Sunday after a 10-month, 420 million-mile (676
million-km) journey from Earth, had come through its landing in
good shape, though they were still grappling with a pair of
technical glitches.

The more serious of those involved Phoenix's inability to
communicate with NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which,
along with the Odyssey spacecraft, must relay commands and data
back to Earth, since the lander cannot communicate directly
with its home planet.

Fuk Li, manager of the Mars exploration program for NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, said the problem was a
UHF radio on the orbiter, which he said appeared to have shut
down after an unknown "transient event" in space.

CALLING ODYSSEY

Li said the Phoenix team was working to re-establish
communications and did not expect the mission to be compromised
because the lander was still in contact with Odyssey.
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